Carrie’s Ramblings

Holy Mackerel!!!…I mean, Salmon!
Carrie posted in Uncategorized on June 1st, 2007

Yesterday and today I pulled some last minute shifts at the the Whitehorse Rapids Fish Hatchery. A worker didn’t show on Thursday so someone from the hostel called home and asked me if I could come out. We were clipping about 176,000 Chinook Salmon fry to be released into the Yukon above the power dam. I don’t really understand how it works and couldn’t seem to get a logical answer out of anyone regarding the purpose of the tags. I mean, the tags are so small and the recovery rate so slim I didn’t really know that they accomplished by doing it. Usually when you tag something you’re trying to track it’s movements, habbits, lifestyle, death, things like that. But they don’t have a solid recovery programme and the tags are so small I have no idea how they are supposed to be found again. It seems like a bit of a waste. But the programme is funded by the power dam to restock the amount of fish that are lost due to the turbines blocking the spawning routes. So it’s like a logging company funding the tree planting programme to re-plant the clear cuts. Either way I clipped the adipose fin off of a lot of salmon and got paid sweetly to do it.

Last night I visited a friend from school that I ran into in town when I first arrived. She’s working at Uncommon Journeys, a dog sledding company outside of town. It’s really a high-end place that caters to rich Americans and Germans who want to be pampered but say they’ve been dog sledding. They mush out to some yurts where eveything is set up and a cook comes out to prepare their roasts and serve wine etc. When at base the guests stay in these beautiful log cabins and everything is really…perfect. Too perfect…Well, to each their own I suppose and if they’re willing to pay $3750.00/week to do it then guess there’s a market. I asked my friend who’s been working there for the last 2 seasons about any problems with animals, being so far from town. She told me that while bears are a non-issue in the winter they’ve lost a number of dogs to wolves recently. The most recent being this past winter when a pack of wolves took out a dog on the line while the guests were out at the yurt. That must have been so traumatic for the guests to come out at night on their luxury trip and find the guts of their favourite dog all over the place!!! Gruesome but comes with the territory.

I have begun to make some contacts and set up interviews with people in town to do some more RESEARCH-like things. I’m anxious to get going so my adventures will go on hold for a bit while I get going in the right direction.